North Korea Travel Journal
After I went to South
Korea about two weeks ago, I had a very strong desire to
visit North Korea (it should
be named as Democratic People’s Republic
of Korea, or DPRK for political correctness). On July 29 this year, I was planning to
join a tour from Shenzhen, China to Pyongyang,
North Korea. However, the flight was cancelled in the
last minute because they could not get the landing permit from the Chinese
Aviation Authority. So I had to
change my itinerary and went to Philippines,
Japan and South Korea.
Besides, I have another plan, i.e. coming
back from Moscow to Beijing
via Trans-Siberia Railway after touring East Europe
in 2006. Then take a train from Beijing to Dandong
and then from Dandong
cross the Yalu
River to Sinuju, North Korea. However, I had a very strange feeling
after coming back from South Korea,
i.e. North Korea
would open up her door very soon. I
won’t be able to see the things that I want to see if I do not go now because
it would change dramatically after it opens up. At this moment, North Korea is still the most
mysterious, socialistic country in the world. Besides, there is Arirang
Show till October 29. This is a
100,000-people Mass Gymnastic & Artistic Performance Show. So I have to postpone my South America trip to the beginning of November.
To visit North
Korea, there is only one travel agency in Hong Kong that handles the travel visa (Golden Trip
Travels Service Ltd. Tel: 2723 0500).
You’ll have to go by joining a tour package, with specific route and
accompanied by two tour guides. A
5-day tour cost me HK$9,490 and HK450 visa fee. This has not included stay overnight and
the round trip ticket to Beijing. The itinerary is as follows:
First
day: Beijing to Pyongyang, Kim Il Sung Square, Tower of the Juche
Idea, Monument to the Party Founding.
Second day: Mangyongdae. Fountain
Park, Mansudae Grand Monument,
The Triumphal Arch,
Friendship Tower, TV Tower, Revolutionary
Martyr
Mausoleum, Buddhist
Temple, Victorious
Fatherland
Liberation War
Museum, Arirang
Show.
Third
day: Myohyangsan, International Friendship
Exhibition,
Mangyongdae Children’s Palace.
Fourth
day: Panmunjeom, Koryo Museum, Royal Tomb
Fifth
day: Pyongyang to Beijing
Before I leave, I have read some books and
information about North Korea: For instance, Yazhou
Zhoukan (2005.05.29. issue), Lonely Planet: Korea, “Kim Jong-Il: North
Korea’s Dear Leader”
written by Michael Breen, “Crossing the Yalu River”
written by Chen Hong and “In Mortal Combat: Korea 1950 – 1953” written by John Toland. I hope to understand more about this
country before going there.
North Korea is a socialist country. I was told by the guides that their
constitution had written that Kim Il Sung was the
eternal Chairman which meant his successor could not be titled Chairman
anymore. And his son, Kim Jong-Il
is titled the Chief Secretary of Korean Workers Party, Supreme Commander of the
military.
The people of North Korea adore greatly their
former leader Kim
Il Sung.
Any big event happened in Korea was related to him. For instance, resistance to Japanese
invasion and victorious was leaded by him, fighting the American and UN force
and victorious was leaded by him, his Juche Idea is
the greatest ever, the whatsoever constructions were under the supervision of
him. The original script of the
movie “Flower Girl” was written by Kim when he was fighting the guerrilla war
against the Japanese. Besides using
the western calendar year, Juche year (the year when
Kim was born) is also used. 2005 is
Juche Year 95.
Kim Il Sung’s body is preserved and kept in Kumsusan Memorial Palace. I had visited the Mao Ze Dong’s in China
and Ho Chi Ming’s in Vietnam
and I thought I wanted to visit Kim Il Sung’s but the tour guide said I had to apply before I came
to the country. Some had said that
the people of North Korea
were hoping that one day the technology is advanced enough to bring Kim back to
life.
Within this 5-day trip, I have observed a
few interesting things. For the clothing
and dressing, men wear western suit, Zhongshan suit
and military uniform. And for
women, many wear the traditional Korean dress where the South Korean only wear
during their wedding or very formal banquet. And most of all, they all wear a Kim Il Sung badge.
There are not many restaurants in Pyongyang. Even in the restaurant, I never saw any
local people eating here. Only the
tourists are found eating in the restaurants. So I have no idea what the locals
eat. The food in the restaurant is
lousy, even the Kimchi is very bad taste. It shouldn’t be as Kimchi
is a Korean’s traditional. But I do
not complain because I know many people are still starving. The situation was very severe two
three years ago due to some natural disasters. It was estimated by the western
analyzers that several million people were starved to death. Until a few months ago, Kim Jong-Il
announced that they did not need foreign aid anymore.
The local people are living in the houses
(or apartments) supplied by the government. They do not need to pay the rent but
they have to pay the water and electricity bill which is very minimal. Besides, people who live in Pyongyang are political
correct and fully support the party and the government. For those who are not have already
expelled to another cities.
For the transportations, there are metro
(subway), buses, trams (with and without tracks), but no taxi can be seen. Every bus stop has a long queue of
people. And the buses and trams are
very old and lack of maintenance, and always crowded and less frequent. The working time is flexible: Morning is
from 7:00 to 9:00 and off work is from 17:00 to 19:00. They have 14 days of annual leave every
year and women have 150 days maternity leave. People are not allowed to travel freely
in their country. They have to get
the permit from their work superior.
In the 5-day tour, I only saw one gas station and never saw an auto
repair shop. Even our car, the
driver carry a fuel tank and stored in the trunk behind us.
Medical and schooling are free. The education system is unique:
pre-school 1 year (start from six years old), primary school 4 years, high
school 6 years, university 4 years.
Compulsory education is 11 years, till high school. If one can pass the university entrance exam,
it’s free again. Every man has to
serve the army service for 5 years, woman is voluntary. Years before, the army service was all
voluntary for 11 years for every man.
Of course, the 5 years army service are not just training and guarding,
they also help to build roads, construct buildings and even autumn harvest.
The people of North Korea have a very strong
hatred on Japanese and Americans.
The reason for that is Japanese had occupied Korea for 36 years and killed
millions of Koreans. For Americans,
they had supported the puppet South Korean government and started the Korean
War (although we all know it was the North Korean who started the war). I was told that Japan wanted to develop the diplomatic
relationship with North
Korea.
However, the North Korean government said nothing would be proceeded as long as the war compensation had not been
solved.
Other than Japan,
Pyongyang is the cleanest city I have ever seen
in Asia.
Although you won’t find any garbage bin on the streets, you won’t find any
litter either. The street is
squeaky clean. Besides, you won’t
find a beggar in the street. The
tour guide said, ‘That is why socialism is better than capitalism.’
This trip was also a scary one for me
because I was afraid to say something inappropriate and caused trouble. About two years ago, there was a western
traveler who had asked a tour guide, ‘Why Kim Jong-Il is so fat and the people
are so thin?’ And this guy was
jailed for two months. The Yanggakdo Hotel that I was staying was reported wired with
bugs. The story was two NGO
westerners who used foreign language and said, ‘Here is so boring. It would be nice if we could have poker
cards to play.’ The next day, the
room service brought them a pack of poker cards.
Although the trip to North Korea is short, I have seen
many interesting things, except the Kim Il Sung’s dead body, and some revolutionary and history
museums. If North Korean is open up
in future, I will definitely come back again and take a detail look on their
museums. Besides, the whole trip is
prepaid and we use US dollars and RMB for the minor expense. I have never seen what the North Korean
currency looks like. I had asked
the guides to show me but they rejected me with excuses. And I still cannot understand why.
2005 10 25 (Tue) Beijing
to Pyongyang
Took the 11:30, JS152 Kroyo Airline to Pyongyang.
Most of the passengers were North Korean. There were also about tens of
westerners. After finding my seat,
I found the cabin had a very bad smell.
It seemed like there were many of them that had not taken bath for
days. It stink.
The fly time was 1 hour and 20
minutes. There was one hour
difference between Pyongyang and Beijing. Right after landing, the pilot shut off
the air condition. The cabin
temperature rose to 34oC within minutes. It took quite a while before the cabin
door was opened. We were all
sweating.
There were two passenger planes on the
runway. One of them was Korean
Airline. I was wondering why there
was a South Korean plane. Later,
the tour guide told me that it was because of the Arirang
Show and there were charter planes that took the South Korean to visit Pyongyang.
Going through the immigrations and customs
were fairy smooth. Mobile phone was
not allowed to enter the country.
Besides, GPS and other communication device were not allowed to enter
either. Two years ago, even
notebook computer was not allowed to enter, but now it’s OK.
There were two people met me at the
airport: comrade Yun and comrade Pak. There were all my tour guides. Including the driver, there were three
people accompanying me. Three to one?
That was quite interesting.
Outside the airport, I saw several cars with NGO logos. Then I realized
that those foreigners on the plane were with the NGOs.
The airport was about 26 kilometers from
the city. There were no cars along
the way. Our car was the only car
on the highway. The road was very clean, you wouldn’t find any litter or garbage. Entering the city, I found there was no
traffic lights, only female traffic police standing at the crossroad. The guide told me that those pretty
female traffic police were one of the famous sceneries of Pyongyang.
Checked in Yanggakdo Hotel. It was a
“luxury” hotel for foreign guests. However, this “luxury” was about 3 to 4
Stars hotel in Chinese hotel standard.
In the basement, it was rented to a Macau Entertainment Group who had a
restaurant, a sauna and a casino.
Local people were not allowed to enter the casino. After checking in, the guide took my
passport, visa, and my return ticket.
They said they had to file some documents and would return to me when I
left Pyongyang. You could make long distance call to
foreign countries but it was very expensive. You could also send emails. It cost 2 Euros for 25k bit.
After a small rest, we went to Kim Il Sung Square. This was the place where we saw the
military parade during their national day.
I was told that it was even larger than the Red Square in Moscow but smaller than the Tien
An Men Square in Beijing.
Later we went to the Tower of Juche Idea. Juche Idea was
created by Kim Il Sung. The theme was you yourself master your
own destiny.
After that, we went to the Tower to the
Party Founding. North Korea had only one party,
Korean Workers Party. The logo was
a bush, a hammer and a reaphook, representing intellectuals, workers and
farmers.
After dinner, it was dark already. Due to lack of fuel and electricity,
there were no street lights, and there were no neon lights advertising
either. The only light was from the
head lights of the car and some bicycles.
Back to the hotel, I tried to overlook from my hotel. The whole city was like a ghost town,
completely dark. It also looked as
if the city was under air raid during the war.
2005 10 26 (Wed) Pyongyang
Pyongyang literally means smooth and flat
land. It has an area of about 2,700
square kilometers and the population is less than 3 million. The vegetation per capita is 58 square
meters. That is why Pyongyang is also known as
the city inside the park.
We went to Mangyongdae
after breakfast. Kim Il Sung’s Birth Place was located
in this park. By looking at the
yellowish cottage house, reminded me of the Mao Ze
Dong’s Birth Palace
in Shao Shan, Hunan Province, China. The guide told me that Kim left home
when he was 14 years old to fight the Japanese. He returned to Pyongyang after defeating the Japanese in
1945 when he was 34 years old.
After that, we went to see the Pyongyang
Metro. It was believed to be the
deepest metro train in the world. But
when I measured the depth, it was pretty much the same as some of the South
Korean metro stations, about -70 below sea level. The construction of the metro began in
1968 and finished in 1973. There
were 17 stations and each station had a very “revolutionary” name. Literally translated,
for instance, Recovery, Honor, Victory, Unification, Red Star, Renovation, etc. There were no advertisements inside the
metro station but propaganda paintings were all around you. There was no air condition inside the
metro train. Although the metro
train was old, the North Korean were still very proud of that because it was
constructed by themselves dated back to the early 70’s.
Later, we went to Mansudae Grand
Monument, a big bronze statue of Kim Il Sung standing in front of the Korean Revolutionary
Museum. The guide asked me to buy some flowers
to pay respect. I did not want to
do that and I said, ‘I did not send flowers even when my grandfather passed
away. Why should I do it to
Kim?’ Then I found that the guides
pulled up a long face and looked very angry. I immediately thought of the westerner
who was sent to jail for saying something not appropriate. Then I said, “OK, let’s follow the
custom.” The flower cost me RMB10
(some had to pay 10 Euros two years ago).
After laying the flowers at his feet and made one bow, two guides were
smiling again.
About 5 minutes drive from the bronze
statue was the Triumphal Arch. This
North Korean Triumphal Arch was 3 meters higher than the Arch de Triumphal in Paris. The Triumphal Arch was to commemorate
the defeat of the Japanese. Right
across the road, there was a huge mosaic painting, describing the cheering of
people when Kim Il Sung came back to Pyongyang after Japanese’s surrendered.
Later, we went to the Friendship Tower. It was to commemorate the Chinese
Voluntary Troops that came to help North Korean during the Korean War on
October 25, 1950. Yesterday was the
55 years anniversary. The tower was
a very simple construction, even inside was very simple. There were only a few wall paintings
about the Korean War. Besides,
there was a booklet of names showing the military officer (colonel above) that
were killed during the Korean War, including Mao Ze
Dong’s son Mao An Ying.
Lunch at a restaurant on
the top of the TV Tower. It was the best place to see the whole
city of Pyongyang. We could also overlook the May First
Stadium, the largest stadium in Asia. The stadium could accommodate 150,000
people. The Arirang
Show performed in here.
After lunch, we went to Revolutionary
Martyr Mausoleum. There were more
than one hundred bronze statue of the hero who had once fought the
Japanese. Later we went to a Buddhist Temple. This Buddhist temple was the first one
in my life that had no visitors at all.
There was not even burning incense sticks in the main hall either. After we arrived
the temple, we had to wait for the temple guide to come out to meet us. I looked around and found there were not
more than 3 people inside the temple and no monk was found. Although there was one who dressed in
monk, you could tell he was not. He
did not shave his head and he wore black leather shoes. It was so strange.
Then we went to Monument to the Victorious
Fatherland Liberation War 1950-1953.
There were ten bronze statues, and each was a battle scene of the Korean
War. Across the river was the
museum. It had an area of 52,000
square meters with 82 exhibit rooms.
It was impossible to see them all in one day. We were showed the most important one, the
Korean War exhibits which interested me most. Because from the books and information I
had studied, it was said that the North Korean started the Korean War. But here, they had information to show
that it was the South Korean who started the war. The guide in the museum said these information were discovered in the Seoul government building when People’s Army
counterattacked the South Korean invasion.
The information including the letters from US asking the South Korean
President to start the war first and then they could have the excuse to ask the
UN force to come. Who was
right? Who was wrong? Who’s telling the truth?.
At night, we went to see the Arirang Mass Gymnastic and Artistic show. There were more than 100,000
performers. The show was magnificent
and you could only see it in North
Korea.
The price was not cheap, US50 for foreign guest. I was told that the show was not perform
very year. As this year was the 60
years anniversary of the party founding, there was performance every night from
August 15 to October 29.
2005 10 27 (Thu) Myohyangsan
We drove to Myohyangsa
in the early morning. It located
160 kilometers north east of Pyongyang. The highway was finished on October 10,
1994. The road condition was very
nice. However, you could hardly see
any car on the road. It took us two
hours to get there. Here there was
the International Friendship Exhibition where gifts from all over the world
given to Kim were displayed. These
gifts were from foreign leaders, foreign political parties, companies, and even
from personals. Until December,
2004, there were a total of 219,3790 gift items from
178 countries, displayed in more than 200 exhibit rooms. If you spent one minute on each item,
and see consecutively 8 hours a day, it would take more than a year to see them
all. Each gift was precious.
Before entering the exhibit hall, we had
to pass a 16-ton bronze door.
Photos were prohibited and we had to wear shoes cover to avoid dirty the
floor. Right in front of the main
exhibit hall was the Kim Il Sung’s
statue, we all made a bow to him.
Later I figured out: we do not need to do anything if we see the photo
of Kim, but we have to bow if we see his statue.
The exhibition was based on different
counties and area. Among them, the
Japanese exhibit was closed to the public.
Besides, there was an exhibit room that displayed the gifts that
received after Kim’s death. The
guide said, ‘Even he is dead, people are still sending gifts to him from all
over the world. You can tell how
great he is.’ There was another
exhibit room which had a wax statue of Kim Il
Sung. The guide said, ‘After people
seeing this, they believe Kim has not died yet. He is still with us.’ I had nothing to say, just smile.
Nearby was the Pohyon Temple,
the most famous Buddhist temple in North Korea. Unfortunately, it was under renovation
and we could not visit. There was
also Qing Chuan River
near Myohyangsan. I was told that it was the first battle
that the Chinese troops fought with the South Korean and victorious during the Korean War.
Back to Pyongyang, we drove through the Guang Fu Boulevard
to Mangyongdae Children’s Palace. The road was 100 meters in width, 6 kilometers in length. The width was from the pedestrian
walkway to the other side of the pedestrian walkway. Even you asked Carl Lewis to run would
take 9.9 seconds to cross.
Children’s Palace was the place where the students had their
extracurricular activities, including dancing, singing, musical instruments,
painting, sewing, etc. We toured to
see the children’s practicing and then we watched a performance by the children
in a big auditorium. It was a great
show.
2005 10 28 (Fri) Panmunjeom
We drove through the Unification Boulevard and got on a
highway to Kaesong
and Panmunjeom.
The road was even wider, 120 meters
in width. Along the road, there
were 50,000 units of apartments.
Housing was provided by the government to the residents. I was told that they did not need to pay
rent, only the electricity and water bills.
Kaesong was an ancient capital of Korea. It was located 168 kilometers south east
of Pyongyang. Before the Korean War, it was belonged
to South Korea and it became
a North Korea
city after the war. The highway to Kaesong
was not as good as yesterday’s. It
was very bumpy. As Kaesong
was the front line city, people were not allowed to go there without any
special reason. There were several
check points along the road but we passed without any trouble. Occasionally, we could see a few
broke-down buses and cars. There
was no tow service and the drivers had to fix their cars on the road. Another strange thing was there were
quite a lot of people walking in the highway. The people walking on the highway were
more than the people riding bicycles, and the people riding bicycles were more
than the people driving.
After passing Kaesong, we saw a sign “Seoul 60km”.
Shortly after, we arrived Panmunjeom. We visited the demilitarized zone. The first place we went was the house
where the negotiation took place.
The house next to it was the house where the armistice agreement was
signed. Later we went to Joint
security area. This was the place
with 7 houses where North and South Korean Soldiers were facing each
other. We also saw the guard
changing on both sides. Several
years ago, there was a Russian tourist seek for
freedom and ran across the border to South Korea from here. The guide told us that the US and South
Korean soldiers opposite were very bad because all tourists here were aimed by
their machine gun. Once we tried to
move close to the border, they would shoot us.
After lunch, we visited Kroyo Museum and one of the Royal Tombs. However, both were not impressed, and
not much to see.
Back to Pyongyang, I suggested to see one of local
department stores, but was rejected.
They only took me to a store that only sold goods to foreigners. The price label was in Euro but RMB and
US dollars were also accepted.
Dinner at a barbecue
restaurant. I thought we would have Korean beef barbecue,
but it turned out to be duck meat barbecue. What a
experience!
2005 10 29 (Sat) Pyongyang
to Beijing
Took the 8:30, JS 151
flight to Beijing.
We arrived the airport around 7:00 in the morning. Like other airports, I had to fill up
the exit form and declaration form.
Although I had one set already, the customs said I had to use Korean to
fill. So I had to ask the guides to
help me with that. After getting
the boarding pass and passed the security check, the guide gave me back my
passport. Maybe they were afraid
that I would escape.